Busy semester
What a busy semester this has been and said busyness is a big part of the reason you haven't heard from me for a while. But let's change that right now.
Where to start...
I've had a lot of content heavy subjects this semester, that while aren't overly difficult are all kinda conceptual and have a lot of work attached. I've been spending time on and getting overviews of fractions, reading, writing, "special education" (I hate how people have to be classified) and technology (read and comment on my subject blog).
I have also realised, particularly with the numeracy and literacy subjects that I am doing, that the subject itself is only the start of the understanding. This is particularly the case for the maths subject that I am currently doing. If I don't go over the theory and class experiences again, as well as extending my own exploration, I will lose the conceptual understanding.
Lots of other stuff has been going on too. I have prac (aka professional experience aka teaching) again in a couple of weeks. It will be for 11 days over almost 3 weeks, but it kinda doesn't seem long enough. I'm with a large group of other prac students this time (8 of us, including some guys for the first time for me), most of whom I know or know of, but never taught near before, so it will be interesting to explore some new dynamics.
Which reminds me, I have a hunch that there may be the opportunity to do an extra prac in a rural area sometime this year, so I need to explore that further too.
What other insights do I have to share this time around? Group work. One point of advice - communicate; a lot, all the time, really. What else? Assignments. Do them before they are due.
That might do for now. I'm still battling with subjects / electives for next semester and how it impacts my subjects for my final year next year. (Yay, final year. Actually, while the whole final year concept is a nice one, it's an increasingly invalid one, due to the process of "academic inflation" which Sir Ken Robinson talks about. More on this in future months).
